First-quarter sales at Norwell-based Jack Conway Real Estate Co. could be up by as much as 35 percent over last year, according to an early prediction from Conway CEO Carol Bulman.

"Reports from our 40 offices indicate that we were up 26 percent in January over last year, 28 percent in February, and our strong March sales suggest we may be ahead by as much as 35 percent for the first quarter of 2012," Bulman said at a recent sales meeting.

Bulman said all indications pointed to a more favorable business climate in the months ahead. Her father, company founder Jack Conway, likened the past few years to "an angry grizzly bear" that is now tiring of causing havoc in local markets.

"The economic turnaround is more than overdue," Conway said in a statement. "The angry grizzly bear had been causing wild troubles as he rooted about and shook up the forests of the financial world starting in June of 2006. During this time, we, like so many other businesses, had fewer sales and battled to keep expenses in line. But there are strong signs that the big grizzly is tiring from his nearly six years of rampage and as someone once noted, ‘As troubles come, troubles go.’"

Bulman credited her staff, managers and 600 sales associates for contributing to the company’s successful first quarter.

"There are lots of good reasons for the upswing," she said. "The weather is great, interest rates are at all-time lows, there’s a larger abundance of bank mortgage money available, and the public’s attitude seems to be changing. That grizzly bear that my father talks about is finally calming down and allowing things to happen."